The state of the art has already proposed various heat-insulated packings for transporting foodstuffs. To that end, it is well known to use an ice-box in the form of a hermetically closed box, lined with insulating material and adapted to receive ice to maintain, in the internal volume of the box, a low temperature favourable to the preservation of food products.
This type of packing is not satisfactory in numerous practical uses, such as the transport of food products in the form of plates or dishes containing food products ready to be eaten. In such a box is not designed to maintain the receptacles containing food in stable position, during transport, with the result that the food is not intact at the end of transport. From using this type of packing, it is observed that this box is preferably reserved for transporting food previously placed in hermetically closed boxes, which generally means that, before being eaten, the food must be removed therefrom and placed on a plate, dish or the like.
Therefore, this packing does not ensure transport, without damage, of these decorated cooked dishes, between the place of manufacture or production and the place of consumption. Furthermore, the use of this packing which is exclusively designed to preserve food products at a cold temperature, involves manipulating the receptacles, and even the food products, to place them in a heating device before the food is eaten.
The need is therefore felt for a heat-insulated packing designed to protect the receptacles containing food products ready to be eaten, so as to conserve intact the food products during transport thereof, while offering the possibility of placing the receptacles containing the food directly at a cold or hot or succcessively cold and hot temperature.